What kind of differences in impolite interaction are there in the different tiers?

In the previous section, the results pointed out that there is a clear decrease in the amount of impolite interaction as the level of the players rises. However, another interesting question to consider here is what kind of differences are there in the impolite interactions of the three tiers? Based on the games transcribed in the corpus there were relatively few differences in the Low tier and Mid tier games.

1 Unless otherwise mentioned, all statistical analyses refer to Chi-squared analysis, where p ≤ 0.05 is significant, p ≤ 0.01 is very significant, and p ≤ 0.001 is very highly significant.

The most common types of impolite language and behaviour in the Low tier were the following:

blaming the rest of the team for the loss; making bad excuses for one’s own poor play; lecturing the team; asking for players to report a specific player; threatening the team that they will go AFK (away from the keyboard, i.e. stop playing); showing bad teamwork; calling out how bad some player is;

and being a bad winner/loser. Below are some of the most typical impolite utterances from the Low tier. The impolite utterances are in italics:

Example 1: blaming the rest of the team for the loss (20:16) Leona: stop throwing

(20:23) Rengar: why does no one know how to group (20:28) Rengar: we win fights but no one will group

Example 2: threatening the team that they will go AFK

(06:39) Sivir: ryze doesnt really fall off at all lol, you just need to play safe (07:15) Mordekaiser: u take this i afk

(07:18) Mordekaiser: thanks (07:59) Mordekaiser: fuck (08:01) Mordekaiser: off

Example 3: making bad excuses for one’s own poor play

(13:45) Aatrox: gg

(14:35) Aatrox: once again top is ignored and then you ask why garen and rengar so strong (14:46) Aatrox: thanks.

(15:46) Aatrox: gg

(16:01) Aatrox: surrender this

Example 4: asking for players to report a specific player

(21:26) [all] LeBlanc: REPORTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT THIS FCKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN KALISTAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Example 5: calling out how bad some player is

(18:19) [all] Riven: hahahahhaa (18:24) [all] Riven: taric kills trynda (18:36) [all] Riven: taric op

(18:39) [all] Tryndamere: riven sell skin (18:48) [all] Tryndamere you bad riven

Example 6: being a bad winner/loser

(28:25) [all] Katarina: I only need aboabout 7 momore damage (28:27) [all] Katarina: and we won that

The types of impolite interaction in the Mid tier did not differ substantially from the Low tier.

However, it was much more vulgar, more aggressive, and included threats towards other players.

Here are some of the typical impolite utterances in the Mid tier games:

Example 7: being a bad winner/loser

(18:31) Annie: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK (18:36) Tristana: that ult

(18:38) Gragas: surrender pls

(18:38) Annie: i **** DONT BELIEVE (18:40) Annie: HE SO LUCKY

(18:41) Shyvana: we can’t lose it bot don;t fight 2vs2 . (18:45) Annie: **** LUUUC AAAAAAAAAAA

Example 8: calling out how bad some player is

(32:46) Shyvana: u can’t even push bot tower guys (32:47) Annie: DAT GRAGAS

(32:48) Annie: WORST (32:48) Shyvana: easy now (32:49) Annie: PLAYER (32:52) Annie: EU/WORLD

Example 9: showing bad teamwork

(16:35) Riven: vayne is trash u counter her as hell (16:37) Riven: and u fail

(16:43) Caitlyn: vayne is the best adc ever (16:48) Caitlyn: if u call her trash again…

(16:49) Riven: nice joke

Example 10: blaming the rest of the team for the loss

(40:09) [all] Warwick: riven u say your team is noob ? (40:13) [all] Warwick: look at my

(18:30) [all] Vel’Koz: this janna made that mistake (18:31) [all] Janna: PLS

(18:35) [all] Vel’Koz: to kick ayne out of my laser line (18:37) [all] Vel’Koz: then flamed me

(18:40) [all] Vayne: we are too good for u

Example 11: asking for players to report a specific player

(12:07) [all] Elise: report fiora

(12:09) [all] Fiora: GO FCKING TOP (12:14) [all] Fiora: U SON OF A BITCH

(12:15) [all] Elise: Feeder refuse communicate negative attitude (12:15) [all] Fiora: FCKING FEEDER

(12:18) [all] Elise: look (12:22) [all] Elise: report him

(12:26) [all] Elise: he is hurting my feelings (12:35) [all] Fiora: i wish i met u in reallife

The types of impolite utterances in the Top tier games are clearly different from the previous two.

There is a lot less aimless shouting and asking for other players to report someone. There is also much less impolite utterances targeted at the rest of the team. There are still a few occurrences of lecturing the entire team; making poor excuses; and being a bad winner/loser. The majority of the impoliteness

consisted of personally attacking a player; distancing a person from the rest of the team; and blaming a person in very detailed ways. Below are some typical impolite utterances from the Top tier games:

Example 12: distancing a person from the rest of the team

(41:09) Thresh: man our ahri

(41:22) Thresh: do we have a chance of winning?

(41:23) Thresh: lol

(41:31) Jarvan IV: if she continues being stupid no

Example 13: lecturing the entire team

(44:04) [all] Nocturne: gg nid (44:14) Vayne: WE SAID DONT

(44:22) Renekton: THIS IS WHY YOU INSTANTLY ENGAGE (44:23) Renekton: FFS

(44:26) Renekton: NOT GO BACK FOR NID (44:28) Jarvan IV: mm

(44:28) Jarvan IV: thats game

(44:29) Renekton: WHO GETS IT ANYWAYS

Example 14: personally attacking a player

(11:17) Renekton: u should be diving top all game bud (11:21) Renekton: free lkill

(11:32) Lux: their wraiths > free kills (11:56) Shyvana: but ur goad

(12:04) Shyvana: god

(12:11) Morgana: swain lvl 3 solo kill (12:17) Morgana: lux with barrior

Example 15: blaming a person in very detailed ways

(18:54) [all] Ziggs: LOOK AT YOUUU (18:56) [all] Ziggs: 1/5

(18.58) [all] Ziggs: GGWP

(19:05) [all] Ziggs: i wanna show you how to play raka next time (19:07) [all] Soraka: ur n00b dude I won my lane

(19:11) [all] Ziggs: REAL>?

(19:14) [all] Soraka: YEs

(19:14) [all] Ziggs: FOR REAL?

(19:27) [all] Ziggs: OK

(19:28) [all] Soraka: FOR REAL

(19:31) [all] Ziggs: YOU WON THE LANE (19:32) [all] Ziggs: TY

(19:49) [all] Soraka: so bad (20:08) [all] Ziggs: BYE

It would seem that players in the Top tier have learned to control most of their emotions and the desire to assume that the rest of the team has failed them in some way. They also do not believe that asking for players to report a bad player would solve the problem of them losing in games. Instead, players in the Top tier directly attack a specific player that they find to be playing badly. Many of the mistakes can be considered to be nitpicking by the standards of lower level players. However, this does not mean that the level of the face threat is any lower. I would argue that it is quite the opposite. The highly detailed and direct personal attacks made against players at the top level attack the players’

quality and social identity face (Spencer-Oatey, 2002) at a wholly new level compared to the lower tiers. While there is a clear FTA in saying something along the lines of: ‘report that noob Ahri, she is so bad’, which is something that might occur frequently in the lower tiers, a detailed description of why you are a bad player and why you should not be part of the team counters one’s beliefs of being a good player and being part of the team in a much stronger way. One can also argue that critique coming from one of the best players might weigh in much more than when it comes from an average player.

This is also a relevant place to discuss the issues left open in the theoretical section regarding context.

As we have observed, the league a player is in has clear effect on the amount of impoliteness and the type of impoliteness a player experiences. Thus, the league one is in is a clear contextual factor in the study of impolite language within LoL. There still remained three points to discuss regarding Thomas’

(1995) activity types: 1. the degree to which Gricean maxims are adhered to or are suspended; 2. the

degree to which the interpersonal maxims are adhered to or are suspended; 3. the manipulation of pragmatic parameters. The answer to all of these need to take into context at which level the players play. It is evident from the corpus that less experienced/skilled players refer to impolite language, and thus suspend maxims and manipulate pragmatic parameters more frequently than the top level players. It would seem that all cooperation in communication, which is the highest aim of the maxims, is easily forgotten, as flaming behaviour takes over. Top tier players appear to adhere to Gricean and interpersonal maxims more frequently, as better teamwork is something they understand to be the key to victory. Another issue to take into account from the perspective of context is the highly detailed feedback/critique top tier players give each other. This creates a specific context of ‘elite players’ at the top level, which can understand and benefit from said feedback, while it might easily go over the head of newer players.